Monday, October 4, 2010

Thank you for Praying...

Thank you all so much for praying for me this weekend for my speaking engagement.

Your prayers made a difference, they always do. 
And thank you for the wonderful comments on the message as well. 
I'm posting it below so you can see what I spoke on. 

Just know this isn't everything I said, since I'm a much better extemporaneous speaker than I am a planner, but this is the general idea.

Our Faith is not an easy path.

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Mathew 7:13

I feel that for most of us many times our faith can be an uphill climb. I know it’s been that way for me at times, sometimes even daily. But I cling to the hope that is in Christ. And I work at it. Even in my struggles in my feelings of not being good enough. Even on the days where I mess up big time. I work to get back up. Often it’s not easy but more often than not it’s the things that we work hard for that we value the most.

And sometimes our lives are just like that field that the pioneers planted. We feel we have plowed and plowed, planted and planted, watered and weeded. We’ve tended our crops but still we work and wait for the harvest.

Our faith is like the harvest we are waiting on. But to get that harvest we must tend our crops.

We must cultivate our faith- EVERY DAY.

For like the pioneer women who couldn’t stop or they, their families, their farms would face ruin. We too will do the same. Our faith will wither if not tended.

“Behold, a sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth.  But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them.  But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Mathew 13:3-8

I’ve always loved this parable. Maybe because I have a heart for missions and so often the leading of others to the Lord is talked about with this scripture. In the way that Christ is referencing the planting of seeds as we plant the seeds of Christ in others.

But I also looked at it in another way this time. There is faith involved in the entire parable. See I think that Faith and Seeds go hand in hand just in the simple planting of the seed.

Just like the actual seed the pioneer woman planted in her field or garden there is faith in the seeds we plant today.

Faith for the sower who is sowing the seed. Faith that the seed is good- that it will “take” or be absorbed in the ground. Faith that there is life in the seed that it will grow. Faith that the rain will come and water it. And even Faith that the weeds and sun will not choke it out or burn it up.

When it comes to our faith we don’t want to be like the seed that fell by the wayside, that the birds came and devoured Or have the faith that fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and immediately sprang up because they had no depth – We want our faith to have DEPTH. And not become scorched when the sun comes up because they had no root they withered away.  Or have the faith of some that fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them out.

We need to have active faith- Faith God will guide us and lead us. Faith that he does want and know what’s best for us. Faith that he will speak to us and through us. Faith that he wants to use us.

But we must do our part- our “work” in all of our faith- our faith does take work. Work to just plant the seeds and work to tend it.

Weeding our gardens of bad things- like bad attitudes or thoughts –weather they are towards others or ourselves.

Tending to & watering our faith by staying in the word, in prayer and in church.
Sometimes it takes faith to just put things in his hands. To trust him with our burdens, fears, trials and to allow him to take care of things for us. Faith to allow him to carry our burdens.
And while it is work we are rewarded at the end. When in the tough times the work we have put in will allow us to stand firm.


Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.” Mathew 13: 31-32

No matter how large or small our faith may be, when we tend to it God can take it from something small and grow it into something beyond what we can imagine when we first plant it. 

2 comments:

S.I.F. said...

You KNOW how much I am feel you on this one! I'm always praying for you too friend...

Leanna said...

If only AK and AR were closer. I wish we could meet for coffee, a chat, prayer and a hug.